Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children

Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children

Normally better than networks and other documentary series, the HBO productions’ “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children” is not an exception. In this series, the makers describe what happened during 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders; dozens of black children were abducted and killed in Georgia State. There are still many questions left about these killings after four decades of investigation.

Given that I knew a lot about this matter as a fan of true crime shows of all kinds who wrote for Vulture on how “Mindhunter” used it in season two. I was skeptical that any American tragedy could teach me something new, but its level detail alone is astonishing and compassionate towards victims like I have never seen before in my life while dealing with such stories.

Instead treating it as another typical true crime documentary where we only get to hear facts from police officers or experts who offer their take based solely on evidence presented by law enforcement agencies involved at various points throughout history here they talk much more from people close to case especially those related or connected through friendship ties etcetera; thus providing real insight into what really happened plus why things may have gone differently had different decisions been made along way even up top levelsof city government itself including mayor’s office unprecedented number high ranking government officials present indicted convicted federal state courts around same time period.

And besides a few exceptions who are remarkably given enough time onscreen to offer a well-rounded perspective most of them don’t think the case was ever solved. A man named Wayne Williams was arrested and convicted for the last two murders, both of men much older than previous victims, but there remain dozens upon dozens of questions.

The final episode shows Williams’ appeal in a level of detail I’d never seen before, including several alternate suspects who appear to have almost as much evidence against them as the man whom Atlanta authorities believe killed all these children. There have always been things about the Williams case that don’t add up on either side. His story on the night he was arrested never added up he said he was going to an appointment that could not be confirmed and there were suspicious activities in the days after he was first brought in for questioning.

But there are also aspects of blaming this entire set of crimes on him that just don’t make sense. The theory that Williams served as a cover to extinguish what would’ve become an explosive revelation: that a KKK member had been killing black children gets a lot of airtime here. There is, however, one interviewee who knows this case very well and believes wholeheartedly in his guilt: “The city’s not wrong,” she says at one point through tears, “when they say Wayne killed those kids.”

Given this episode’s depth of research, I’m starting to wonder if some people interviewed for this series will change their minds after watching it. So how do you make a five-hour series that doesn’t reach any definitive conclusions interesting? By being this evenhanded with information and empathy.“ Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered” is a production so finely tuned it doesn’t dip too far into grief narratives or wade too long into clinical exposition territory; it straddles that line perfectly.

The Atlanta Child Murders were formative years for this country in early ’80s. You might come away from this series feeling like the case was rightly solved. You might come away from this thinking it was just closed to prevent a race war from tearing through the city. But you will certainly finish it with a better understanding of why this remains such an essential part of Atlanta’s story.I still don’t think we’ve seen the end of it.

Watch Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children For Free On Gomovies.